999: The Search for June (Rewrite)
by RiderExMachina
Summary: Junpei and the others search for June after the second Nonary Game. CloverXJunpei
1. Prologue

I looked at the sun. Sure was bright after being cooped up in that ship so long. After a while I looked back at the Gigantic, but the sight that beheld me looked...different. Then it hit me. I swore.

"We were in Building Q the whole time?!" I cursed again. However, the relief of being out in the air again quickly rushed in and extinguished my frustration. I looked down. There were more stairs, going down this time, and at the bottom, an SUV. I looked at Seven. There was NO WAY they could ever get him in there. But they would deal with that later. I heard something else. The bracelets. They were lying on the floor. I picked one up and opened the back. There was only a chip, like what you would find in an ATM card. Nothing in the bracelet remotely looked like a detonator.

"There was no detonator," I heard a voice say. It sounded like Akane's voice. Figures.

"Akane..."

"Jumpy..."

Heh, must be pretty crazy about a girl if you think you can hear her voice in the wind... I put the bracelet in my pocket as a souvenir, then pointed at the SUV.

"There's a rig down there, let's go!" Before I went I looked at the horizon. There was a cloud of dust. Santa... no… Aoi's vehicle. If they hurried we could make it! I ran as fast as I could, keeping an eye on the vehicle as I ran. I got to the bottom of the stairs and took off towards the SUV. When I got there I pulled the door open to hear the sound of the beeping a car makes when a key is in the ignition. I smiled.

"'Kay, everyone, get in!" I said, raising my voice above the desert wind.

"I'll drive!" Clover said as she pushed past me in order to hop in the driver's seat. Lotus climbed in the passenger's seat.

"Come on guys, we gotta hurry." The older woman said, looking at us. Seven and I gave each other fearful glances, but we hopped in anyway. Snake slid in after us. As soon as the last door slammed shut Clover turned the key to make the engine roar to life. Without waiting for us to get ready, or for the engine to warm-up, she jammed on the gas. We lurched and bumped over rocks and small uneven bumps on the ground as Clover navigated towards the dirt road.

"THIS IS SO AWESOME!" Clover yelled after we'd been following the dirt road for about 10 minutes. "Driving is so great when there's nothing around!"

"There's still some things I don't get..." I said. "Like why Ace... or Gentarou Hongou... why did he create the Nonary Project? Anybody have any ideas?"

"Why don't you just ask him yourself?" Seven said. He pointed behind our us. "He's in the trunk, after all." That was news.

"He is?"

"Yeah, I caught a glimpse of the trunk before we left and just happened to see him back there, tied and gagged. He wasn't going anywhere."

That was news to me. I turned around and looked over the seat. There he was, just as Seven had said; no emotion, like he'd given up on life. I reached over and ripped the tape off of his mouth. He said nothing.

"You heard my question, right?" I said, looking him straight in his lightless eyes. He nodded.

"I just wanted to see faces," he said, his voice monotone and emotionless. "I thought that if I could gain the ability to access the morphic fieldset, then perhaps I could see them. By peering into people's minds, and understanding how they were processing the expressions of others."

His answer made me furious. "That's it?!" I yelled, startling Snake. "You put 18 kids' lives in danger because you wanted to see a _face_?! How the hell-"

Seven placed his hand on my shoulder to stop me. Ace was quiet a moment before replying.

"Yes," said he. "If you want to put it simply. If you are looking for a more philosophical answer, the collective consciousness- "

"I think that's enough info outta you," I said, putting the tape back on.

"So what's your second question?" Clover asked. I turned back towards the front and frowned, confused.

"You said there were some _things_ you didn't get," Lotus said, jogging my memory.

"Well, my next question doesn't really have anything to do with you two," I said sheepishly. "This is for you, Seven; about the whole Alice thing. What's the deal with that?"

Seven thought his answer before he said, "Well... See, 9 years ago, after I escaped from the Gigantic... I kept goin' after Hongou on my own, hopin' I'd catch him when he finally slipped up. During the course of my investigations, I learned a lot more about the Gigantic. I also found out about Gordain and Alice." I looked at him.

"You're not really answering my question," I said. "Was there actually a girl in a block of ice that wouldn't melt at room temperature?" Though the question was aimed at Seven, Hongou made sounds like he wanted to say something. I took the tape off. "What?" I asked, perturbed

"Alice doesn't exist," said Hongou. "Nine years ago I found Alice's coffin behind the library on the bottom deck. There was nothing in it but the root of a peculiar plant. My research determined that it was..." He went on about how he became the CEO of Cradle pharmaceutical. I stopped him and put the tape back on to save us from a several hour story.

I decided to enjoy the ride and let the rest of my questions wait. Besides, the hardest yet most important question, has to do with June and Akane... Nine years ago she died in the incinerator on the Gigantic. But... She's still alive, as June. How? Was it because I tapped into the morphic fieldset, saving her 9 years ago?

Okay... Let's say that does make some kind of insane sense... If I did that, then how do I make sense of what Seven remembers? Snake's story made sense... he was blind. He couldn't have seen her body anyway. But Seven... He said he was sure he saw it. Does that mean there's some kind of... historical discrepancy? Or... wait. Maybe that's not it at all... There is one other logical explanation...

Was what you told me the truth Seven? You look... satisfied. No. No way... He couldn't- Eh, I'd figure that out later and hope it all got figured out in the end. As we went along I noticed a scantily clad woman with a nice tan trying to hitchhike.

* * *

 **WN: This is a rewrite of The Search for June, where I take one of my favorite (and most popular) fanfictions and rewrite it so that it doesn't look like a kid wrote it. I want to thank everyone who read the original The Search for June and also say "I'm sorry," due to the absolutely horrendous writing in the beginning.**


	2. Much Needed Rest

It was sundown when we reached the first city. We were sure we'd lost Aoi and Akane's vehicle within the first hour of the journey, and I became more and more worried as the time wore on. Throughout the ride Snake had seemed to sense my disappointment and gave me repeated reassuring pats on the shoulder. It didn't help.

Clover turned into the first hotel's parking lot and parked the SUV, bumping the curb before she could place the vehicle in Park and we all gasped in surprise.

"What was that?" Snake asked, rubbing his forehead where he'd hit the seat in front of him.

"Sh-shut up," said Clover, who sat blushing in the front seat. Lotus smiled at the younger girl but said nothing.

"We hit a curb," I said. "We parked in front of a hotel."

"Oh good," said Snake. "It would be nice to have a place to sleep decently well."

"Ya know, that sounds great," Seven said. "Except for the fact that we don't have any cash."

The group sat in silence for a moment as they processed that sobering thought.

"Maybe Aoi left some money for us," I said, a little bit hopeful.

"Oh yeah, I'm sure they just stuffed some cash in Hongou's pocket just for us," Clover said, the sarcasm falling like a waterfall from her words.

"Or maybe just the glovebox," said Snake, calmly. "Lotus, if you would?"

Lotus turned on the dome light and checked the glove box. She turned around, grasping a large wad of $100 bills held together with a rubber band. "Looks like the kid was right," she said, flipping through the bills. A silent thud followed by a surprised yelp came from her. She held up an old cell phone. "What the...?"

"Probably for him to contact us," said Seven. "A burner phone from the looks of it."

"I wonder why we wants to talk to us," I said. "Well, we can think about that more later. Let's go inside and sleep."

The others agreed. We debated about bring Hongou in, but decided it was the humane thing to do and ended up temporarily untying him until he was in the room. We also had to figure out who has the best English skills, and it happened to be Clover, who had most recently taken English classes in high school. Through Clover's limited English skills we were able to get three rooms; one for the girls and two for the guys to split. Seven chose to room up with Hongou, for fairly obvious reasons. That left me with Snake.

We all settled into our rooms, making audible sighs of relief as we lay in our beds. They were cozy rooms with two beds, a dresser, and a TV. I had claimed the one closest to the door, right after Snake had claimed the one closest to the far wall because "if someone comes in, I wouldn't be able to see them." Great logic there, buddy.

"Want the TV on?" I asked my partner.

Snake shrugged. "Nothing would catch my eye," he said, a slight smile on his face. I groaned in response and left the TV off. It'd all be in English anyway; just background noise that would make it harder to sleep.

"She likes you, you know."

I sat up in the bed and saw Snake facing me. "What?" I asked. "Who?"

"Clover," said Snake. "She likes you."

I sat in silence for a minute. I knew she did; she showed all the signs. And honestly, I thought she was cute. But I didn't want to lead her on if Akane still had feelings for me. But I had to break the silence.

"What about you?" I tried to be calm so his superhearing wouldn't pick up any reaction. But I knew it was a futile attempt and he had heard my heartrate increase.

"Junpei, I may be her older brother, but I can't tell her what to do or who to date." He sighed. "But honestly, I don't know. We spent nine hours together in a stressful environment and then another few hours in a cramped car. But that's not really enough to know someone well enough for a seal of approval." He sighed. "But it also seems like you still have feelings for another girl, so I will delay my judgment for another time." We sat in silence for a few seconds before he lay back down. "Come on, let's try to sleep."

I was about to turn off the light when Snake sat up, facing the door. Less than a second later, someone knocked. I got up and answered it.

"Hey, Jumpy."

It was a whisper, but the sound broke my heart. For in front of me stood Clover, not Akane. She seemed to see my face fall and I could see the regret quickly show on her features.

"Oh my god," she said quietly. "I didn't think you would take it like that!"

"Why are you whispering," Snake said from his bed. "You know I can hear you, right?"

"Oh, shut up," said Clover. She turned back to me, her worry evident. "Look, I just wanted to know if you wanted to go outside and talk a little bit. You don't have to..." She shrugged.

I thought back to what Snake had said earlier and wondered what the best course of action would be. Yes, I wanted to know Clover better, but at the same time, knowing that she had feeling for me that I didn't even know if I reciprocated and spending alone time with her... it didn't seem smart. But on the other hand...

"Alright," I said. "But we can't stay out too long." I saw Clover practically leap for joy as I turned around to get my room key. Snake looked less than pleased, but said nothing as I exited the room to join his sister.


End file.
